VoIP and ENUM

Richard's Blog for VoIP and ENUM related stuff

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

2nd Consulation on VoIP by the Austrian Regulator

From the RTR web-site:

The Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications (RTR) is conducting a 6-week public consultation on the document "Guidelines for VoIP Service Providers" and invites all interested parties to submit positions and comments regarding the regulatory approach to VoIP services. RTR already held a public consultation on VoIP in June 2004 with the results influencing RTR's comments to the European Commission consultation on VoIP, This second public consultation on VoIP gives opportunity to comment on RTR's modified position. Due to the international aspect of VoIP regulation, the consultation document is published in English. Comments are welcome both in English and German. All comments received will be published on RTR's website, as long as RTR is not explicitely advised not to do so.

Please send your positions and comments until June 10, 2005 in electronic form (MS-Word, MS-Excel, PDF) via e-mail to konsultationen AT rtr.at

The consulation defines two classes of VoIP services (Class A PATS+ECS and Class B unregulated) and deals mainly with numbering issues, interconnect requirements and access to emergency services.

The proposed position is:

If you are connecting to the PSTN in Austria you are Class A and therefore regulated. One major point here is that if you want to provide VoIP service with a geographic (local) number, you need a fixed termination point at this location. If you provide a nomadic service in addition, you need also an additional nomadic number below for display if you access emergency services.

If you provide a nomadic (virtual) service only, you may use the number ranges 0720 and 0780 (ENUM) only.

Since the outcome of this consulation is important also for non-native VoIP providers, I recommend that VoIP providers interested in providing VoIP services using Austrian numbering resources or to terminate calls via gateways in Austria to retrieve this paper and also to comments on their position.